Back in 2007, I was still running my 3D Department of 1+ at The Cimarron Group providing 3D Design, 3D Modeling, and 3D Animation services to a full mix of advertising clients in Print, Web, and AV, and for today's posting, I am covering a project where I was tasked with creating some 3D Emoticons for an online project.

An "Emoticon" is an emotional animated Icon we see in e-mails with a little face, but taken to a much higher level to an actual 3D Character design. I was tasked with designed out four to five of these little gems that in final form were only 100 x 150 pixels in size[ a button], and would animate across the screen when you interacted with them.

Fist up in this series, is my PART I, covering the chattering teeth.

I did two versions, as they wanted one plain without a hat, and one with a hat, specifically a Sombrero. I created the base design in just under an hour and began to rig it for the animations and adjustments that would come. I built about half of the file as a subdivision model so I could increase the complexity if they did want it rendered or seen much bigger, but the micro final size of 150 pixels is so small it was not necessary to build it all that way, because as with all 3D jobs, the budget was micro so I had to create this much faster at the lower cost for them, so I went with a fast and dirty approach to the file.

As a 3D Designer trained in Industrial Design The "widget" or product in this case a cartoony styled set of chattering teeth is only the first part of my responsibility, as I must design it to fit the budget and parameters of the project and actually work for a paying client. That is something that goes well beyond a mere deadline on a piece of design or artwork, but the creation of a workable production line to create the 'wdiget' on time, on budget, and approved by the one paying for it.

Look for PART II in the future with a few more of these 3D Animated Emoticons.

Six years back in 2007 I was still an in-house division at The Cimarron Group providing 3D Design, 3D Illustration,and 3D Animation services for the internal departments there, and George Anderson in the Home Entertainment group called upon me and my skills for an Elvis Documentary that they wanted to pitch a big 3D Logo with vintage bulb lights and a great 3D Electric Guitar as part of the final look, so off I went.

I had one day to do the project, and so I decided to do a few big parts using the Npower NURBS tool set so I could quickly get this up to Home Entertainment for their deadline. I'd prefer to go full subdivision, but in 07' I was not as fast as I am now so I opted for the great tool in the NURBS modeler.

The main body of the guitar is a hollow body style and has a continuous crown[curved in all directions] to the surface so it is not in any way flat, so the NURBS aproach allowed me to build it out very fast, though in trnaslation you get some messy edges with all NURBS converting, but it sure rendered well for the finals.

A fun project which did not go to finish as they went with a simple 2D white text over photography instead.

I had worked with Chris Do in the past on the Raveonettes Music Video where he won an Emmy for the Art Direction on it[ I did get Honors], and he had another fun task, only this time he needed 3D Modeling done for a game-screen for a slot App on Facebook.

I gladly took the work and was given a direction sheet to work off of and had a day or less to complete the job. I built out the assets as all subdivision models since this was to be exported out to their in house 3D team for finishing up.

A very fun assignment as I got to do 3D Design while I built it out as the direction gave me room to explore the designs a bit, and it was super fun to do. Enjoy the posting.

I
had the pleasure of working on the recent Key Art Movie Posters for the new film, Jack
the Giant Slayer, and today in my PART III posting the 3D illustration Matte I did of the cave city for the finished Key Art.

Building
out a fast matte painting is something that I have had to do a few times,and an advertising a digital 3D Matte Painting is very different from a regular film matte.

First and foremost is you get one day to do it, whereas on a film they spend weeks on a single shot , and I have to get them something very fast so you need to figure out methods to get very close, very quickly as you need time for the finished renders[ a few Hrs] as well and the budget and time-frames are always very compressed.

First step is I block out the main buildings put a texture that I will start with on there light it and add atmosphere and get it lined up to the comp provided. I then will take a single building and flesh it out as seen above to get then an idea of the level of finish I will bring in a day of work.

Once approved by the client, I proceed to finish the entire city out in 3D and render it at 6000 pixels wide for the finisher, which in this case was Lisa Carney, with whom I had worked for a few years together when we were at BLT and Associates a decade back.

I always like to revisit older projects in my body of 3D work I have done,and today I have put up a behind the art posting covering the 3D illustrations that I did for the One Sheet Key Art Presentations for the film, The Fighting Temptations, back in 2003 while I was in-house at BLT and Associates[ Now BLT Communications].

BLT understood it was faster and less expensive to have me build virtual handcuffs than to to thru the trouble of doing a Professional Photo shoot to get the asset, so they tasked me with a quick build and a few renders for the poster with a Virtual Photo shoot.

They wanted the cuffs built with one cuff swung open and I rendered it out a various angles for the comps needed. A job like this was a little over a half day, and I built this fast without a full subdivision model, though if it was today, I would now do it 100% subdivsion, but none the less they came out nice with the mini beveled plates stacked up and catching some light glints on the fun little ridges in the shots made a simple object look nice, and that is always a fun task at hand.

Back in the Summer of 04' I was still running a small in-house 3D Design Department at The Cimarron Group, a Theatrical Adverting Agency in Hollywood, and for the Home Entertainment Division, I was asked to reproduce the prop from the film Riddick for the cover shots for the Key Art on the DVD and then new Blue-Ray packaging.

I was given the angle and lighting to match as well as a few screen grabs of the prop needed, this was his rubber special glasses he wore in the film.

I proceeded to build them out as a Subdivision Quad model and rendered it at a few angles as well so they could experiment a bit.

As with many daily projects this was a quick half day gig again. Fun and Fast!

When I was in-house at The Cimarron Group, I ran a little 3D Design Department that would meet the internal 3D needs of the various divisions in the company, and on many an occasion I worked with Eric Person up in the Online and then "Interactive division there.

I regularly did little project to be used in animations and logos for Eric,and for this client they wanted to do a full pass in 3D to see a natural rock like feel to the logos with a cinematic glow to spice up the brand. I obliged, and created this set of looks withe versions A thru F, for there review.

I use and build procedural shaders for natural looks as it is much better at dong a real 3D texture that goes thru the object so mapping is not needed. Procedural textures take longer to render as they are not 'pictures' applied to the mesh as with a regular bit-mapped [ JPG] image, but a mathematical formula using fractal design to create the algorithm to give the look a much more natural look. It is also built at render so it never pixelates as you move closer, it simply re-renders the texture higher and higher as you get closer and closer.

For
this my third posting on the 3D Illustration and Motion Graphics Animation
work I did for the advertising campaign for the two films, Night at the
Museum, and today I am focusing on the T-Rex Head I sculpted out in 3D to have for 3D illustrations for the two films.

I have posted a shot in the past here, so today I cover a behind the Art build of that 3D Illustration in more detail.

I hand built the skull first as we had a little T-rex model we got online that was a bit cartoony in the face, so I rebuilt the head and neck as seen here for the majority of he comps as they all used the head poking into the shot at some point, so I built it out subdivision to use for close and long shots. I then added the neck too as that was also too rounded and not matching up to the film scrap I had at the time.

I also used the Simbiont Dark Tree procedurals to get the bone texture just right, as well as the Final Render Dirt Shader to get the aging into the nooks and cranny's in the head. The final finish was a black tar finish similar to the Museum bones found in the film.

You can review PART I here showcasing both films I did work on for the Advertising, or PART II with the Tablet here.

BabelFish Universal Translator Widget

About Me

Trained in Transportation Design at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, I have worked for the past 24 years in every facet of Entertainment Design as Conceptual Designer, up to Design Director. I am currently running my design studio full time out of my home in Littleton, CO.
In the past, I have orchestrated teams as large as 100 on an international level , and as small as a few artists. Art Center gave me the formal training in Industrial Design via sketching and modeling to execute my designs.
The variety within the Entertainment Industry that I have been involved with includes: Television Commercial Set Design, 2D Animation Television Series, Restaurant Design and Illustration, Real Time 3D Interactive Gaming, Online 3D Web interface, CD ROM Magazine Design, Theme Park Attraction Design, and finally ending up in Entertainment based Advertising for Theatrical Films.
I have experience starting up both 2D, and 3D design departments, as well as moving into existing studio infrastructures of operation and working within established systems already in place.